Video: What Do You Call a One-Armed Bartender?

The answer is JAMES -- Joint Action for Multimodal Embodied Social Systems, the work of the Munich Research and Transfer Institute for Software Intensive Systems (fortiss GmbH) in collaboration with a number of other European research institutions in Germany, the UK, and Greece.

While the robot does indeed fetch drinks, that's not the main reason for his development. Researchers designed the robot -- which stands about 4 feet tall, has a yellow, cat-like head, and greets his customers in English -- to experiment with robots interacting with humans in public spaces. JAMES can take orders and hand out drinks and also, like many human bartenders, deliver the occasional wisecrack.

JAMES, a robotic bartender, can deliver drinks and speak to customers in English. Developed by the Munich Research and Transfer Institute for Software Intensive Systems as part of ongoing research to create robots that can interact with humans, the robot can take orders and serve drinks, responding to commands from customers. (Source: The Munich Research and Transfer Institute for Software Intensive Systems)

To do these things, researchers built the robot with artificial intelligence that can fulfill specific tasks while also being aware of the social needs of the humans he serves, according to fortiss. This requires a programmed ability to analyze situations and come up with the correct behavior, particularly in dealing with more than one human at once.

Fortiss has posted a series of videos showing JAMES at work on YouTube. In one, he greets a customer with a friendly, "Hello, how are you today?" and responds to requests to deliver both a generic drink and a specific beverage of a customer's choice. He also encourages the customer to "enjoy" the drink after putting it on the bar.

In another video, JAMES shows an ability for more sophisticated interaction, letting one customer know he'll be with him in a minute before serving a drink to his friend who also approached the bar. He then addresses his other customer and serves the proper drink to him (watch the video below).

JAMES joins China's noodle-making Chef Cui, the Toyota Human Support Robot, and Rethink Robotics' Baxter as a new breed of robots that are designed to work alongside humans as helpers or to take over different tasks. While sometimes they may put employees out of jobs, many times they are taking jobs people don't necessarily want or are being designed to work with, not to replace, human counterparts.

JAMES likely won't be slinging drinks at an actual bar anytime soon, but researchers will continue to use the robot to observe and record how he interacts with humans to inform their current and future work, they said.

I agree, Elizabeth, this is interesting. Primitive now, but with tweaking and development, who knows what it might turn into. Early automobiles were nowtmuch of an improvement over the horse and buggy.

Cabe, your point is well taken. I actually thought the robot was a bit scary myself...I am speaking with the company today and will suggest they make some design changes to make JAMES more user friendly, literally! But you're right, perhaps an automated device that's alreaady more recognizable to humans would be a better option.

On a busy bar day, perhaps JAMES can do a better job for the masses. I don't know about anyone else, but the combination of a hulking body, small head, and the billowy pirate shirt makes the bot look quite scary. I can see the robot bartender being simplified by something similar to a beverage vending machine. Insert cup, beverage is mixed, poured, and picked up. Just a thought.

But the robot bartender would certainly be an attention-getting gimmick, but probably not cost effective. But as a learning tool it can certainly provide a bit of value. Of course it will also bring home the fact that artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity. In that aspect it would be entertaining to read about the problems that it runs into.

Taken as a whole, all the robots we've seen on the designnews.com site in the past year must say something about where we're heading. This is yet another example of a robot that's not yet ready for prime time, but could be ready in another decade, or even less. There must be a lesson in the importance of education here.

Yes, this robot is a bit slow moving, conversationally repetitive and probably would falter in a real-life, busy bar situation. But who knows what future iterations will bring? It's still quite interesting the tasks engineers are programming robots to achieve, especially in the service industry.

That's a pretty good video, Elizabeth. I don't think this robot will beat the simple efficiency of a human bartender. But who knows, maybe a tweak here and there could get the robot in the running. Wisecracks indeed.

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